Doctor Who_ Corpse Marker - Chris Boucher [82]
Sarl said, ‘Since you came there have been no communiques.
No guidance. No instructions. Now we are blamed for these insane murders. Capel, humanity be in him, seems to have deserted us. But you are here.’
‘Why do you say that?’ the Doctor asked. He walked forward. The electronic field got stronger for perhaps ten paces and then began to tail off. ‘Humanity be in him, I mean?’
‘It’s a sign of respect.’
‘It’s a sign of superstitious fanaticism.’ He reached the limit of the field and turned and made his way back to the centre again where he stood feeling and listening to the vibrations from the sonic screwdriver.
‘That’s easy to say.’ Sarl scowled. ‘Sometimes fanaticism is the only way to change things.’
‘Never for the better,’ the Doctor said, ‘trust me.’ He crossed back inside the boundary, pocketing the screwdriver. ‘Some sort of electronic field. It might be generated by a natural rock formation, magnetic or radioactive or some combination or variation, but I doubt it. It’s twenty yards across, stronger in the centre, and it’s pulsing on and off. I’d like to check it at a few more places on the perimeter but my first guess would be that it’s artificial. Question is, was it designed specifically to keep robots out? Or for some other reason entirely? Nobody’s done any research on it, you say?’
‘Why would they?’ Sarl said bitterly. ‘What does it matter?
The Sewerpits are for the dregs of humanity. We are the scum of Kaldor. We are killers of children.’
‘Yes. A friend did tell me it was the rough end of town,’ the Doctor said. He looked up at the pale sky. ‘This field will interfere with fliers too, I expect. Scramble their instruments.
Interrupt their drives probably. Below a certain height anyway.’
‘Have you seen all you want?’ Sarl asked.
‘I hope not,’ the Doctor said smiling cheerfully. ‘Boredom is usually the cue for a regeneration and they’re not my favourite thing.’
Frowning, Sarl shrugged and shook his head. ‘Which means what exactly?’
It meant the Doctor realised that a man who already thought he was a spy would now think he was an insane spy. ‘These communiques of yours?’ he asked more hastily than he had originally intended.
‘Are you sure they’re not communiques of yours?’ Sarl said, staring hard into his eyes.
It was interesting, the Doctor thought, how people imagined they could tell the truth in the eyes. ‘How do they come?’ he asked. ‘Is it always the same way? Is it always to you?’
Sarl’s expression became a cold blank but his stare was unwavering. ‘Why do you ask me that?’
‘It’s possible you’re being manipulated.’
‘Are you testing me?’
‘It’s possible somebody’s using you.’
‘Taren Capel, humanity be in him, is using me.’
The Doctor sighed. Leela had warned him that Sarl was a true believer. He was not at his best with zealots. ‘Somebody else.’
Sarl shook his head and looked away. ‘No. You cannot make me doubt what I know.’
The Doctor noticed a movement out beyond the end of the alley on the other side of the open ground. As he watched, a man stepped out of the shadows by a partially collapsed wall and walked a few paces towards them. It looked like a man but then when he got a clear view the Doctor recognised that it was one of the new class of robots, the killer class. After walking a little further it stopped and stood quite still, facing in their direction.
‘You were testing me,’ Sarl said. He sounded pleased and awe-struck, and he was smiling.
To the best of his recollection the Doctor had never seen Sarl smile. ‘Explain,